2007-05-29 13:10:04 · 4 answers · asked by dragonslayer8282 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
I know that comets are really cold... I want to know about how many degrees they are.
2007-05-29 13:18:25 · update #1
As with planets, the temperature of a comet depends largely on how far away it is from the sun.
Most of the time, comets are really far away from the sun - beyond the orbit of Pluto. Therefore, most of the time, comets will have temperatures approaching absolute zero.
When a comet gets closer to the sun, it heats up. Part of the comet turns into gas, giving the comet a tail (since the solar wind pushes the tail away from the sun... note that a comet's tail points straight away from the sun, rather than in the direction the comet came from).
Ultimately, the maximum temperature of a comet depends on just how closely it approaches the sun. For most of their orbits, though, comets are really really really cold.
2007-05-29 14:13:29 · answer #1 · answered by Bramblyspam 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, there is an average temperature. Between galaxies, the temperature is about 2.73 kelvin. But near the solar system, the temperature is 100,000 K. That sounds really hot, but the interplanetary medium is very very thin -- almost a perfect vacuum. So it can't heat up objects in it very much at all. Most things in space -- like space probes and planets -- get heat from sunshine. This has a lot more energy than the temperature of space. That's why the Earth's temperature is about 13 deg C. Objects around the Earth can be -170 C on the shaded side, and +120 C on the sunny side. When you get out to Neptune, the temperature of space probes would drop to around -218 C, if they didn't have some way of heating themselves. Between stars, the temperatures vary a lot. They range from 10 K up to 10 million K.
2016-04-01 03:43:35 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Comets are generally really, really cold. Their temperature's approach absolute zero. Their "tails are usually gases escaping (when they finally melt)" as the comet approaches a heat source such as a star.
2007-05-29 13:14:36 · answer #3 · answered by Mr. G 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
around -275*c because the coldest temp you can get is around -276*c but this is in a vaccume and in a vaccume there is no matter or energy so on commets it may be a little warmer than -276*c because there is matter (rock and ice etc) so heat can be absorbed by neraby stars.
2007-05-29 14:36:54 · answer #4 · answered by allthebest1s 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋